NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Can Now Have A Monstrous 890W Power Limit Thanks to Modded BIOS
NVIDIA‘s latest BFGPU to join their 30-series lineup, the RTX 3090 Ti, is a proper beast already with its absurd 450W TGP. That’s the power limit NVIDIA has set as a reference for all AIBs, but obviously there were some board partners who pushed this limit even further by using specialized BIOS and custom cooling solutions to keep the GPU under control.
We saw multiple variants breaking the 500W barrier as their factory boost clock setting out of the box, but of course people didn’t stop there. Enthusiasts have already tried to one-up even the most generous of factory power limits by all means necessary and today’s story is perhaps the craziest one we’ve seen so far. Forget 500W, 600W, even 700W, we’re talking nearly 900W of pure insanity with this one.
RTX 3090 Ti running XOC BIOS
Custom GPU modder MegaSizeGPU took to Twitter to post a picture of a GPU-Z window showing off an RTX 3090 Ti running with a ridiculous 890W power limit. That’s pretty much double the factory power limit that NVIDIA has laid out for this card. To put this into context, this is more than likely the highest power limit on a mainstream consumer GPU we’ve ever seen.
Unlock 3090Ti power limit to 890W！ pic.twitter.com/6VtyEF184I
— MEGAsizeGPU (@Zed__Wang) May 5, 2022
To achieve this miracle, the modder used a special XOC BIOS that is meant for extreme overclocking. It allows the user to push past the sensible boundaries of any custom BIOS from even the most intense AIBs. Therefore, you usually see a XOC BIOS in overclocking competitions to break/set the craziest records with liquid nitrogen cooling and other bonkers stuff.
The modder confirmed that this special XOC BIOS he’s using works with the ASUS TUF variant of the RTX 3090 Ti, but that’s not the one he’s using. That being said, variants such as EVGA KINGPIN and GALAX Hall of Fame, which are already kind of out of this world will seemingly benefit from this the most, especially considering how both of those come equipped with dual 16-pin PCIe Gen5 power connectors, for up to 1200W of total output.
Most RTX 3090 Ti variants, though, are limited to just one 16-pin power connector. Keep in mind that the modder didn’t actually push a RTX 3090 Ti to hit that power limit, most likely because they didn’t have a variant with dual 16-pin power connectors on hand. However, the BIOS is capable of that 890W maximum TGP, so this is really more of a proof of concept that can be materialized if the right GPU is in place.
Still, using two fairly popular RTX 3090 Ti models with a single 16-pin power connector, the modder was able to break the 600W barrier on both using the XOC BIOS. First, using the EVGA FTW3 variant, the BIOS was able to take the card to 614W. The same XOC BIOS was a little more favorable to the ASUS TUF variant which managed to hit 615W of total power output, from which 496W is being consumed just by the GA102 GPU itself.
Nearly all RTX 3090 Ti cards on the market are locked to sub-500W power limits, but as mentioned before, there are some exceptions such as the ASUS STRIX Liquid Cooled variant which allow for 500W+ power limits out of the box. If you have a RTX 3090 Ti and want to try out this XOC BIOS yourself, you can find it on the TechPowerUP website or through the Chiphell forums.
It’s extremely important to note that overclocking using this XOC BIOS can cause permanent damage to your card or possibly even brick it upon the BIOS installation. So, perform this maneuver at your own risk, if you’re brave enough. For the rest of us that aren’t trying to set world records, the factory power limits will suffice just fine.
